Archive for May, 2012

Said Pickle to her Pa I’m going West with John
To drive around America, you know I’ve worked quite hard
We’re going in a few weeks I thought I would come home
To save my money not spent on rent and food just so that we can go

Pa and Ma then feed the child (and her boyfriend too)
They are a delight to have at home, a laugh a smile … a moan
Comes the day, ‘Do you need some cash?”
No thanks Ma we’ve saved and saved we’ve got enough we’re sure

First week down, not a sound, the ‘phone lies quiet, idle
second week starts the silence grows, I do hope there OK
Second mid week ‘phone springs to life, ‘Of cash we have run out’
Just three hundred will do the trick paid in today, that’s right.

Another day, passes by, the ‘phone rings once again
We forgot the airport transfer Thursday, could you put 50 in?
A dreadful day for Ma and Pa not chance to bank the cash,
It’s all fine there is no rush Pickle said we have got cash

That evening at 11 am the Pickle calls once more
Explain our sin oh dear oh dear they’ve only ten bucks more
Her ‘phone is took she knows not when you can’t call me anymore
John’s phone doesn’t work so we are stuffed we cannot make a call

This morning’s plans gone up in smoke to bank I wend once more
No sleep last night concern for her and for John did they eat at all,
On her return we are going away Ma Pa and Pickle too, our cash we’d saved
For our holiday, now spent in Californ i a rather than in Suffolk!

Yesterday I had a thoroughly frustrating day. I had to change a shift in order to arrest someone who is in prison to speak to them about further offences committed. Initially this involves completing nonsensical forms to have the prisoner ‘produced’ so he can be taken to a Police Station in order to be interviewed with the protection of PACE. I would have thought it would have been better to have the legislation to allow us to talk to him in prison, but there you are simple solutions seem never to find favour.

Having collected our man, after a 90 minute drive to get to the prison we drove to the Police Station. Only one Police Sergeant to look after 22 prisoners. There used to be more but since we all have to save money we can’t have so many. Now, sergeants are the people with power under PACE. There are functions that only they can do. The custody personnel do a lot of the booking procedures (Group 4 employees i.e. private enterprise) but they cannot authorisedetention. This has to happen before anything else can be done. So, myself and a colleague, a handcuffed prisoner and an appropriate adult wait for an hour, yes an hour, to have a sergeant explain the prisoners rights explained to him.

The right to have someone told you are here, the right to free and independent legal advice and the right to consult the codes of practice covering police powers and procedures, you may do any of these things now but if you do not you may do so at any time during your detention.

A short discussion (45 seconds) about why we need to have the prisoner there at all then ‘detention authorised’.

An interview that lasted 33 minutes and 36 seconds.

Waiting for the custody sergeant to grant a technical bail to our prisoner so we can take him back to the prison from which he came. Yes more waiting.

Three hours to get to prison and back, half an hour for the interview, the rest of my 9 hour shift was spent waiting for the custody sergeant to find time to authorise detention and grant bail. My time wasted, my colleague too. The appropriate adult who had to sit in the interview with our young man (he was a juvenile) was an unpaid volunteer who wasted his day standing (no seats for anyone) in the custody block. The young man, even though he was not the nicest type and already under sentence should not be treated like this either. When I investigate I have to do so expeditiously otherwise the behaviour can be seen as oppressive / intimidating.

No-one concerned wanted to be at the custody block, but it was something that had to be done. The prisoner co-operated in that he did not complain or become difficult, even in the absence of a meal as no-one had time to feed him. All because it is so important to save money. I would argue that the prisoners right to be dealt with expeditiously and fairly are more important than the need to reduce cost. This is a human being who for whatever reason finds himself in trouble. Should he be treated like some kind of cattle?

When I arrived at the custody centre a female officer was waiting to interview a young man. His father had turned up to be appropriate adult. They were there before me. They were still there after me.

It would appear that our society has reached a point where money is more important than people, despite our whingeing about human rights abuses elsewhere.

Extinct in the UK, short haired bumble bees are being reintroduced from Sweden where the population of bees is expanding, unlike every in all the intesively farmed nations of Europe where bee numbers are declining. The RSPB reserve at Dungeness has been selected for the release. Why should we get so excited about this? I quote from the BBC,

‘With about 80% of Britain’s plants reliant on insects for pollination, it has been estimated that these creatures contribute more than £400m a year to the UK economy.’

Without the bees and other pollinators as Frazer would say, ‘We’re all doomed.’

Trawling the BBC this morning I came accross a heart warming / rending story of a little chinese mutt so desperate for food that it ran 1700 km during a cycle race to keep up with the kind soul who gave it some food.

The MP’s who steal and cheat and take the people for granted and seem to believe we are all stupid appear shaken when people tell them to their face of the frustration. Clegg tries to make out that he has taken a laudable decision not to move, as he puts it behind the Whitehall Battlements. Lucky sod to have a choice of where to live! I would like to move from my ‘umble abode. Planning decisions have blighted the area, that is permanent not transitory like a wheelchair protest. Travellers regularly disrupt our daily lives. How would I like to remove myself behind some Whitehall Battlements at no cost, …

Mr Clegg, grow a pair. If you misrepresent the wishes of the people expect some fallout. You are lucky it does not include eggs and whitewash.

I have just read today’s BBC news concerning the state’s repression of the freedom of speech and action concerning GM. It appears that the government arranged for the closure of public footpaths, the deployment of large numbers of Police Officers (taking them away from other functions no doubt.

What were the protesters, the villains of the piece demonstrating against? A grain crop that actively discourages aphids. Now as a gardner I am not fond of aphids. They do spoil my gooseberry bushes. They infect my cherry tree and anything else they fancy. However, aphids are part of the food chain. The government are aware of the depletion of bird species. They appear to approve of labelling insect friendly seed to encourage us in the gardens of our homes to increase insect populations for the good of bio diversity. Then along comes the aphid killing grain.

The anonymous spokesperson (best be politically correct) for the site stated that the genetically engineered destroyer of nature’s bounty is:

“just one tool in the toolbox to create more sustainable food”.

On what level is it sustainable? How much has been spent on producing enough grain to sow this field? What price does that make a bushel come out at to the retail trade. How is the grain propogated in future, and am I really supposed to believe that the food scientist is a philanthropist who will not expect a vast financial return for taking something freely available to all (essentially grass seed) and turned it into a cash cow. I have seen no figures published to show the ammount of noxious emissions released into the atmosphere of our beleagured planet as a result of the creation of this teenage mutant ninja seed. The oil cost of it’s production and the heat and power wasted are not quantified by anyone.

Perhaps the money would have been better spent converting the sterile field environment into self sustaining food forests. That is what I call sustainable food, not something that requires human input to bring the seed into existence where it may destroy the green and pleasant land it was planted in.

Professor John Pickett, a principal investigator at Rochester Research, told BBC News there was “a very, very remote chance that anything should get out”.

“All it would mean was that some other plant – if it ever did miraculously transfer into another plant – was making a smell like the aphid.”

Is that not the point. There is tacit acceptance that there MAY be some cross contamination and make another plant smell like an aphid thereby depriving the much maligned creature of another chance to breed. This breaks the food chain Professor Pickett. A depletion in aphid numbers = less food for their predators being less food for the predators predators etc etc an nauseum. Result less food for US.

And why are the government supporting the profligate waste of a bankrupt industry. Farming has caused untold damage to the environment sterilising the soil to the point where nothing grows without massive pertro chemical inputs. Oh, of course Dave’s chums need to make a profit to buy another Ferrari, own more houses than they can live in and swill at the trough in a glutonous manner.